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Instructors > How To...

Grade Center: Customize Spreadsheet with Smart Views

Instructors can create “Smart Views”, a display of the Grade Center spreadsheet data based on various criteria. Once created and saved, Smart Views become an item on the Current View drop-down menu of the Grade Center page. Any Smart View can be saved as the default view of the Grade Center.

There are four different Types of Smart Views:

1. Group Smart View - a spreadsheet displays a selected group of students.
2. Benchmark Smart View - a spreadsheet displays students' performance on a single grade item, for example, students who scored lower than 70 on a mid-tern exam with 100 possible points.
3. Focus Smart View – a spreadsheet displays information based on a selection of students and grade columns, for example, John Smith and Jane Kerry’s grades on Quiz 1 and Presentation.
4. Investigate Smart View – a spreadsheet displays student and grade information based on multiple search criteria. This is a combination of the options of the other three Smart Views.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Create a Group Smart View (filtered by groups)
• Create a Benchmark Smart View (filtered by scores)
• Create a Focus Smart View (filtered by students and grade columns)
• Create an Investigate Smart View (filtered by a customized set of criteria)
• Modify a Smart View
• Remove a Smart View
• Set a Smart View as default

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Create a Group Smart View (filtered by groups)

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center (a gray bar above the spreadsheet).
2. Select Smart Views from the menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Enter a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View menu on the Grade Center page.
5. Enter a description of the view.
6. Select Group next to Type of View.
7. Select “Equal to” OR “Not equal to” as the Condition for the Group.
8. Select the group name.
9. Select the Filter Results by picking which Columns to Display in Results from the drop-down menu.
10. To include hidden columns, check the box “Include hidden information.”
11. Press Submit.

Note:
A Group Smart View displays a filtered spreadsheet based on student groups.
You need to create a group/groups before you add a Group Smart View. Learn how to Create and Manage Groups.
To select more than one item in the menu, hold down the Control Key on PC (Apple Key on Mac) and click on the items.

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Create a Benchmark Smart View (filtered by scores)

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center (a gray bar above the spreadsheet).
2. Select Smart Views from the menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Enter a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View menu on the Grade Center page.
5. Enter a description.
6. Select the Benchmark radio button next to Type of View.
7. In the Select Criteria section, select a name of the column from the drop-down menu.
8. Select a Condition for the criteria, for example, “Less than.”
9. Type a grade value to which a condition should be applied. All values require a number except a value for “Status equals” condition, which requires a selection of the grade status.
10. Select the Filter Results by picking which Columns to Display in Results from the drop-down menu.
11. Check the box “Include hidden information” if necessary.
12. Press the Submit button.

Note:
A Benchmark Smart View displays a filtered spreadsheet based on students' performance on a single grade item such as a mid-tern exam.
To select more than one item in the menu, hold down the Control Key on PC (Apple Key on Mac) and and click on the desired items.

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Create a Focus Smart View (filtered by students and grade columns)

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center (a gray bar above the spreadsheet).
2. Select Smart Views from the menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Type a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View drop-down menu on the Grade Center page.
5. Type a description of the Smart View.
6. Select the Focus radio button in Type of View.
7. In the drop-down Users menu, select either All Users or Selected Users.
8. If Selected Users is picked, hold down the Control Key on PC (Apple Key on Mac) and click on students’ names to include them in the selection.
9. Next to Filter Results, select Columns in the drop-down menu.
10. To include hidden columns, select the check box “Include hidden information.”
11. Click Submit.

Note:
A Focus Smart View displays a filtered spreadsheet based on selected students and grade columns.
To select more than one item in the menu, hold down the Control Key on PC (Apple Key on Mac) and click on the desired items.

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Create an Investigate Smart View (filtered by a customized set of criteria)

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center (a gray bar above the spreadsheet).
2. Select Smart Views from the menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Type a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View drop-down menu on the Grade Center page.
5. Type a description of the Smart View.
6. Select the Focus radio button in Type of View.
7. From the drop-down menu, select Criteria, for example, last name, group, and a grade on a mid-term.
8. Select a Condition from the drop-down menu. The possible selections differ with each Criterion.
9. Enter a Value for the condition. The value entry depends upon the criterion selected. Date criteria require specific Date values; Name entries require specific letter or name entries. A Value entry will specify the Student Criteria for the Smart View. For example, entering “60” as a value for a Midterm test would pull all students who scored 60 or less on the Midterm test.
10. To add a second Criterion, click Add Student Criteria, and make additional selections.
11. Criteria are always added as AND statements. The formula for the query is displayed in the Formula Preview box. To edit the formula manually, click Manually Modify and enter a new formula.
12. Next to Filter Results, select Columns in the drop-down menu.
13. To include hidden columns, select the check box “Include hidden information.”
14. Click Submit.

Note:
An Investigate Smart View displays a filtered spreadsheet based on a combination of student attributes.

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Modify a Smart View

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Find the Smart View to change and click Modify.
4. Make desired changes.
5. Click Submit.

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Remove a Smart View

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Find the Smart View to delete and click Remove.
4. Click OK to remove the Smart View.

Note:
Removing a Smart View does not remove any data from the system.

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Set a Smart View as default

1. Move the cursor over the Current View menu in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select the desired Smart View.
3. Click Go.
4. Click Set as Default.

Note:
By default, the Current View displays the Full Grade Center – a spreadsheet with all columns except hidden ones.
Views available in the Current View drop-down menu are the Full Grade Center, all saved Smart Views, and all defined Grading Periods.

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